Sixty Last Sacrifices
by ever4
Summary: Sixty days. I'd given myself sixty days to find Lissa's half sibling and bring him/her back before I would kill myself. Sixty days, and a trail of blood wherever I went. Like last mementos..or sacrifices. I liked that word, sacrifice. My last sacrifices.
1. Chapter 1

**New story! I love VA, and I just had to write this. This is only the preface, so it's supposed to be short. I'll update soon only IF you give me the reviews!**

**Song For This (Preface): I Wanna Be Your Dog – The Stooges ** highly recommend you listen to it while reading.**

**REVIEW YOUR A** OFF, PLEASE. **

_**He wasn't coming for me. **_Dimitri wasn't coming for me, and I was going to jail, and then I was going to be murdered. All by my own will.

Really? Did they not know me at all by now? I wasn't that defenseless, and I proved it by basically taking out all five guardians sent to take me back to my cell. A left kick here, a right jab there…it was all too easy. My knuckles didn't even hurt when I was finished with them. The alarm was going off, and more were coming at me. I smiled. I could take them. And I wanted to.

I was almost getting _bored_ with incapitating people. Lately it seemed guardians went down as often as they stood up. _He wasn't coming for me. _I quickly took out the two guardians by the gates, landing a pretty good hit with my elbow by the sound a jaw made. _Too easy._ I was feeling pretty badass by the time I got to Adrian's car, but I was slightly guilty at the thought that this would get him in trouble. He'd been nothing but good to me, and here I was stealing his car and leaving all the evidence pointing at him helping me escape. _They come first._ Screw it.

I could hear reinforcements coming at me in the distance, and knew I needed to act fast. I was still a little uncertain of my plan as I rolled my sleeve up and pulled out the knife, but _he wasn't coming for me. _Dimitri could care less if I suffered. That show in the café was simply that, a show. He didn't love me, and I would always love him.

I cut three lines into my flesh. The first was simple, just a line at the base of my wrist. _One._ The next two were a little more tricky, and when finished formed a barely legible _60_ at the inside of my shoulder blade. Sixty days. I'd given myself sixty days to

find Lissa's half sibling and bring him/her back before I would kill myself. Sixty days, and a trail of blood wherever I went. I smiled again, loving how sick the concept was. I used the hand that had been holding the knife to wipe some of the blood away from my arm and smear a big _60 _into the grass. _Perfect. _The first of my last mementos for them to find.

"Roza! Don't do this!" It was Dimitri's voice, about two hundred feet away. He dared fucking call me that _now?_ I was disgusted. And as for the court, well damn them if they thought I was seriously going to go down without a fight. After all, it was the only thing I seemed to be good at: hurting people.

I climbed into the shiny black car with the extra tinted windows, put the keys in the ignition, and revved it. They didn't deserve my voice, but they could run in my dust as much as they wanted. I hated their guts.

I thought I wouldn't say anything. I thought I would leave them in their tracks, confused and ashamed. I thought I would move on. But against my better judgment, words came out of my mouth, the bitter taste of unrequited love lacing each one.

"Have a great life, Comrade!" I screeched. And with my voice's acidic echo to accompany it, I screeched out of the Court grounds going 160. God I loved sports cars. At least _they _seemed to love me back.

This was going to be a hell of a long two months.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Hey guys! Sorry I've been so long to update. School started back, and that's really been draining me to the point that I just don't want to write. I know, I know, that's terrible. Anywayyy... here's the next part, at least- sorry it doesn't really go anywhere yet, but I just didn't have the time. If you're interested in continuing it yourself, PM me as I mayyy put it up for adoption. Depends on how into I get, timing, etc. So, thank you for being patient and please do review. They sort of kind of make my life better.

XOXO, A.

**RPOV**

I was in a hotel room somewhere deep in the heart of Vegas, mildew staining the wall and a _wash your own towels_ sign in the bathroom, but hey, at least it was cheap. I might have stolen Adrian's car to escape, but there was no way in hell I would risk getting caught with his credit car. Besides, I had abandoned Old Sporty in some dark alley the second I arrived in the city. They'd find it soon enough, which meant they would be hot on my trail…and I didn't have much time left to escape.

So far I'd used my best ninja skills to avoid attention and had made it to the city with little suspicion- but really, it _was _Vegas...not all that unusual for an unaccompanied minor to be running around down here. Or so I assumed.

Only a day had passed, and I'd crashed here and stayed indoors for hours. It sucked. Having no contact really got to me, and I realized that I sort of _did_ need to talk all the time. Maybe Adrian was on to something…

Hmm. I breathed in deeply and tried to distract myself from my grim surroundings. If anything, I would have to get used to this 'being alone' thing. I'd run away before, so that would not be the problem. But the lack of company…well, that might get to me- might. I was determined to get through this and come out…well, not _alive_, per say, but still…victorious. I would finish my duty to Lissa, and then I'd be free.

_Lissa_. I mentally cringed at my best friends' name, because by now she must hate me and_ then_ some. Well, fucking _whatever, Lissa._. If she had any idea how much I was risking for her ass right now… But no, she couldn't. It just wasn't possible, the bond wasn't that strong. No matter what had happened at Oksana's, with Adrian, what had happened…with Dimitri…it just wasn't possible. I was shadow-kissed, and always would be until my death. And then Lissa…

A thought made me stop dead in my tracks. Anna had been shadow-kissed, and she had been reduced to insanity and ultimately killed herself. I had thought…I had thought it was only because she was his guardian. But what if I was wrong? What if Lissa had to go through that, too? If there was even a chance she- _shake it off, Rose, _I coaxed myself. _She'll be fine. She's strong. She's not like you. _She wasn't like me. Right, Lissa Dragomir, Princess Vasalisa, the last of the royal Dragomir clan…was not like me. Because Lissa was strong. And I was not.

I was brought out of my thoughts, or rather into them, I should say, by a sudden burst of emotion from the very object of my worrying. _Shit! _She was emotional. Of course she was emotional, why wouldn't she be? And I was emotional- my control must be weak, and shitshitshit. This was no good. There was no way I could save my own body- let alone hers- if I couldn't even be in my own mind! Sometimes it really sucks to be shadow-kissed.

I glanced quickly at the barren walls beside me in a vain attempt at memorizing the room while I still could. It was coming much slower this time, the pull, and I couldn't help but wonder if that meant my control was getting better. Or maybe our bond was just breaking. For some reason I really didn't want to dwell upon, I hoped it was neither. All I really knew was that one moment I was wallowing in my misery, thinking off all I had lost and would lose, and the next my vision went blank and I couldn't move my limbs and _here we go again._

Oh Lissa.

She was at the Court, of course, and I couldn't help but feel a tiny surge of pride in the fact that she belonged there. She was, after all, my best friend…or she had been, for a…I didn't finish the thought. It hurt too much.

Someone was speaking to her, but I couldn't hear who under the enormous sobs that were wracking her fragile body- why the hell wasn't someone _comforting _her? She was sobbing! If I was there I would have known how to make her feel better. Christian would hold her, Adrian would be the soothing presence (why she felt that way towards him I was yet to know) and I would have come up with a plan of action and kicked some ass. Oh, when I got back these people would have hell to pay-

Only I wasn't coming back. Sigh.

She was curled up in a ball on one of the couches in a spare room, crying her eyes out in despair over what I had done. If only she knew…

"Lissa," the voice said again, and even though she could barely hear under her own turmoil I had the distinct impression it was a male. She sniffled again, pretty loudly if I do say so myself, and the guy obviously saw she wasn't listening for a second later I- Lissa- heard footsteps coming towards us, her, and then he was sitting right next to her, me, right next to me and if it was who I thought it was I was going to throw up because I wanted to kill him right now, I wanted to kill him more than anyone else in my entire existence and I wasn't even a violent person. But in the second, in that moment of pure rage, I wanted him dead more than those dogs that had nearly killed my fiancé, more than the captors who had tortured me, more than my once-loved Uncle for ruining it all…and I was the reason he was alive. I saved him, and he killed me. He _killed_ her! She was going to _die _because of him- because she had so stupidly ran off, because I couldn't be enough for her but he could be, because he took her heart and just ripped it out. I would never forgive him for that as long as I lived.

"Lissa," he attempted again, but I had no words for the man who had broken her. I had thought, originally, that I could understand his pain. That he was making the right decision. And so I accepted it. But now, with everything out of place and life crumbling terribly and tremendously down, I knew that he had been wrong to abandon her like that. She had only offered him comfort, going back again and again when all of the odds were against her, and he _broke her heart_! I didn't want to hear what he had to say. I didn't want to hear, because I didn't want to understand. I had no empathy for this man, this man who had killed her and thus so me.

I turned to look at him, not even focusing on the attempted ice-cold features on his obviously miserable face, and glared. He would not know how much pain he had caused- this pain could not remain. I made up my mind in the millisecond it took to see his painstaken form and pick up my hand, and a half smile lit up my face as I did the unthinkable to my shadow-kissed chance. And then I positioned my hand, the way Rose had taught me, the way I would never forget for the rest of my life- and rammed it into his nose.

Let it be known, that Vasolisa Dragomir, weakling and coward that I am, punched Guardian Belikov in the face. Because this was not over. This was not over until I declared it over, and so far I had definitely declared it not over- and what's more, the bleeding man in front of me, gaping at me with an expression of equal surprise and expectation …he was going to help me if it killed him. Because one thing I knew for certain, in that murky state of pain and hope, was that Dimitri Belikov loved my best friend with all of his heart. He had abandoned her once, and she had searched for him to no end. Now it was his turn to seek. And I knew in my gut, in my heart and in my head- that he would come out victorious. Together, we would find her. This wasn't over. Rose would return.

And that's when I snapped out of it and the page turned and I was sitting dumbfounded on a strange hotel room bed, and I realized that I hadn't actually punched my beloved mentor, because I had been in Lissa's head, not my own. And then her decision registered in my slow-functioning brain, as if it refused to process it, and I sucked in a lungful of air and then another. Because she had a plan. A _good _plan. I eyed my bag at the foot of the bed, envisioning the knife that lay inside it. _Well that was okay_, I thought. Because I had a plan, too. And if anyone was coming out freaking victorious, well, go to hell if it wasn't me. Seriously. I'm Rose Hathaway, and I'm telling you- Go To Hell if I don't own this game. Because Lissa, see, she was too innocent, played by the rules too often and too much. It takes a true coward to know how to cheat.


End file.
